MySpace Gets Makeover
The appeal of MySpace has always been its media-rich environment and the amount of control users had over their pages. But by using a cleaner, leaner design and a more simplified user interface, rival network Facebook has surged ahead in popularity.
With today's release, MySpace takes some of the appeal of cleaner design but still retains the appeal that makes the site so popular.
What's new? Media links for one. Yes, MySpace may still be cleaner, but its still media heavy. The video player has gained new controls and support for Flash 9 full-screen mode. Click on videos and links will take you to a page where you can add the video to your favorites, forward it to your friends and so on in the traditional social networking style.
Navigation is another major change. The new MySpace puts popular links across the left side and the rest of your links in a drop-down menu. Good move. The old style with all the links across the top was confusing. Navigation then has benefited from the clean up.
Tabs also add to the ease of navigation and now MySpace users have them. Even the search function has incorporated tabs to give the site a Facebook-like feel. Anything users search for is organized into four tabs: People, All MySpace, Web, Music and MySpace TV. Expect speed and ease from these first releases.
Other changes are in the works and should be released later this fall. One of the next roll-outs will include a more user friendly profile editor. Users must know HTML and CSS right now if they expect to make changes to the profile page. Expect MySpace to become more user friendly.
Both sites have their fans and the key factors separating the two camps are layout and design with MySpace giving users more options and Facebook providing simplier, cleaner controls.
